Reactions to store reactions

[rezal]

I personally think the devs acted really unprofessionally without announcing the arrival of p2p when the previous game was f2p all the time, it was a kick to the nuts of almost all the players.

You have to realize that the majority of your community is either eastern european or russian where 10-15$ is a big amount of cash that not a lot of people would want to spend on a game in alpha stage with shitty servers and unsure future with unsure amount of updates.

SHOULD HAVE announced the p2p system months ago so you'd have a smaller backlash that wouldn't be here on day one of the game. You acted like retards and expected non-retarded things to happen. Woo-woo, worked perfectly didn't it?

[Bawhoppen]

What makes you think that? You mean there's going to be people giving you 15 euro's worth of content (''content'') for giving them some nooby stuff, that they can get easily if they play 12 hours a month? That's not much. That's not even 1 hour a day. That's not even 30 minutes a day.

Why would you assume it has to be crap? You can make silk without being logged in for long? Same with steel, Same with pretty much any crafted good. Some people don't want to do the work in game to win.

[Awesomekaj]

I understand that you wish to make some money off of your hard work. It's entirely reasonable to expect monetary gain from a project you've been working on for such a long time.
However... your subscription system makes me pay 64 Euros for a year. That means that I'm paying more money for a year of playing this game than I've paid for GTA V, a game that is without a doubt superior in design, both artistic and technical. Furthermore, GTA V offers me an unlimited online experience, whereas you expect me to pay again if I wish to continue playing without limits after that year.
Please consider this when you decide on your pricing, because as it is, your numbers are unreasonably high in my opinion.

[MusicWarrior]

loftar, 10$ a bit too much for most of RU players, 5$ will be ok.

Buy a year and it's already $6.

Wow... you really act like all you care is to get money...

[MrBober]

I too have bills to pay, after all, and Haven development does require too much effort and attention to be able to do "on the side" of another job. It kinda is what it is.

That being said, of course, does not mean that there cannot be reasonable objections stated to the specific model of payment we have instituted. There may be a case to be made that prices are too high, that free time is too sparse or anything else, but if that is so, it is (despite the self-righteous assertions to the contrary that some make) not a priori obvious, and it is too early for me to tell yet.

We understand you want to make money out of your work on this game, but you have to see it from our point of view:

- The game rewards people who spend a lot of time playing, which now translates in people who pay more to have more "Play-Time". Not much different from a "Play to Win" kind of thing.
- The game is not completed. It has been a trend lately to sell unfinished games with "early access". That's what people would have expected from Hafen. One time buy option, to have access to the full game since the alpha stages (around 15-25$ like most Early Access games). Eventually a higher price when (if) the game ever gets a full release.
- Not everyone can afford it. While 10$ a month might to be a lot, not everyone has it, especially in poorer countries.
- The free option give so little time, it's not worth playing. It's great to try out the game, but that's it. 12 hours A MONTH is more or less 20 minutes a day. Now, if we were talking about a dumb "smartphone app kind of game", 20 minutes would probably be fine. But given my experience in Haven and Salem, this kind of game requires a lot more time to enjoy. I know not everyone plays daily, but I'm sure if they don't, they play for several hours when they can. Haven has a small but very active player base, with people spending a lot more than 1 hour a day on the game..
- 10$ a month can buy you "more", meaning you can subscribe to fully developed games for close to the same amount. Of course players expect more from a subscription. Bug fixing, regular updates, 24/7 support, etc.. That's what other subscriptions offer, and that's what player want if they pay monthly. Also, you can't really compare Hafen to other huge games with the same subscription price..
- The "Game Time" thingy probably won't work for most players: even if paying users decided to sell game-time, I strongly doubt they will sell it cheap. They will probably require high quality stuff or extremely rare items for it: both things require a lot of "play time" to get, which is exactly what free users (aka. those you thought would buy the Game Time from other players) lack.

Right now, with those options, you just look greedy. And some of your comments really don't help your cause.
Making a living out of the game requires a lot of work from you, meaning advertising it ($$$) to get more players, having a bigger staff to quickly fix bugs and bring regular updates, maybe getting a designer to make you better models, etc..

Look at games like "Starbound". They made a B2P plan, advertised it well enough, and sold a huge amount of copies for an early access game. You have the advantage of having a quite unique game, use it to improve it.

I'm sure most users would agree with a B2P, and if the price is right (as I said, most Early access are around 15-25$ each, often offering a "4-pack" option meaning you pay for 3 games and get 1 free) it would make everyone happy.

I'll give you my example: I used to play Haven with 3 other friends; we managed to convince 2 more friends to join us when Hafen would come out. That's a total of 6 players. Now that they saw the payment plan, they all lost interest (quoting: "If I can only play 12 hours a month, it's not worth it"), and I'm the only one left (still deciding what to do, but given the problems on OS X, I doubt I'll buy it until it's fixed). While none of them will get a subscription, I'm fairly sure at least 3 of them (4 including me) would pay to "own the game" (B2P).
I'm sure there are many situations like mine.

I think the best thing you could do is something like:
- Free option: few hours to "try out the game".
- B2P option: around 20$, full access for unlimited time. You bought the game, no you can play for as long as you want.
- Subscription option: for those who want and can support the game even further. Unlimited access, a vanity item (why not a statue or other decoration for example..), maybe some kind of rank on the forum.. (or ask players what they would like, and get some idea out of it???)

This way new players could still try the game before buying it (making it easier for player to bring their friends), regular players could buy it like any other game (without expecting too much immediately since it's an "early access" kind of thing), and those who can could support the development even further by having a monthly subscription.

Please consider it.

[ramones]

I totally support p2p as long as server work. The only thing that I feel bad about here is that there is so many casuals who just like to enjos ingame chatting and hanging out and don't care about quality. So with the time limit the punisment goes on them aswell.

Until then it would simply be better with no payment so people can at least try the game. If I was to start and know I would have 15$ expense monthly with having 3 sec lag... well, its not the way to go. (not counting numerous crashes aswell).

[MusicWarrior]

The only thing that I feel bad about here is that there is so many casuals who just like to enjos ingame chatting and hanging out and don't care about quality.

I remember that when i played on w3 i spend a lot of time sitting in a chair ingame just talking with other villagers, now i feel a bit weird about constant relogs just to save time.

I suport p2p too, I don't even mind high prices, doesnt matter, but just look at this... We wait 1 week, then 1 week delay... Then J or L says that they are finally launching it and it will take maybe like 4 hours, it took 8 hours. I waited till midnight, played during night a bit to check how the game is working. Lags, crashes, ok, I'm used to it, but the only thing which works and give us variety of options is a store, I decide to go sleep, wake up in the morning and start playing. I wake up, play for like 40 minutes and server crashes for around 5 hours... WOW! WHERE IS 365 DAYS SUBSCRIPTION, TAKE MY MONEY!

[beansahol]

I would be so happy to give you guys some money for the game, but not like this.

Subscriptions are for multimillion $ mmo's that are lead by massive dev teams and updated on a regular basis.

This is basically a steam early access game, without the steam. If you want people to pay for this you need to let them buy into an early access scheme.

The reason there is so much outrage is not because the fanbase is overly critical or whiny, but because this method of monetization is completely ridiculous.

[MightySheep]

just get rid of the "verify account" option, thats the thing which is confusing people

all we need is monthly sub and vanity items, anything else is confusing

[James_Purefoy]

If people play 4-5 hour per day, why they must pay 15$? It's too big money for alpha. If you would sell game time it would look much nicer. For 15$ i can buy any other good game with lifetime license and should not pay so much money for a couple of hours in the game per day every month.
Pls sell in-game time.